Bring it on: Governor's School alumni ready to perform at benefit show

Michael Benabib photo

Adrienne Warren, who starred on Broadway in the Tony-nominated "Bring it On: The Musical," will perform at a benefit show for the Governor's School for the Arts on Saturday in Norfolk.

Adrienne Warren, who starred on Broadway in the Tony-nominated "Bring it On: The Musical," will perform at a benefit show for the Governor's School for the Arts on Saturday in Norfolk. (Michael Benabib photo)

Adrienne Warren is very busy in New York these days, but she has a lot of good reasons to come home to Hampton Roads this weekend as one of the performers in the annual Alumni Benefit Showcase for the Governor's School for the Arts on Saturday in Norfolk.

"It's extremely important to me," said Warren, a Western Branch High School graduate who played one of the lead roles in the Tony-nominated musical "Bring It On" in 2012. "The Governor's School blessed me with so much. Every bit of who I am, as a person and in my career, I owe to that school."

And then there's the fact that her mother, Andrea Warren, is now the school's executive director.

With a laugh, Adrienne Warren said, "Well, yeah, I don't know if I even had a choice in whether to come back."

The Governor's School is a center to develop that talents of performing artists from high schools in South Hampton Roads. This weekend's benefit - at 8 p.m. Saturday at ODU's University Theatre - will bring back several accomplished alumni to perform and raise money for the school.

In addition to Warren, the showcase will include Van Hughes, who has performed in "American Idiot" and "Hairspray" as well as Broadway's "9to5"; Nashville musician Tyler Cain; opera singer Marjorie Owens, who will be in the cast of "AIDA at New York's Metropolitan Opera; pianist Justin Kauflin; Anthony Wayne, who appeared on Broadway in "Pippin" and recently wrote and directed a successful off-Broadway show based on the life of 1970s disco singer Sylvester; and painter Rebecca Lowe Mosena.

In a phone interview early this week, Warren said was still making final decisions on what songs to sing on Saturday night. She says she will do Linda Eder's "Gold," and she says she plans to do one number a capella.

"I'm not going to say what it is yet, because I want it to be a surprise for the audience," she said. "It's definitely a song that we all need to hear in light of what's going on in the country right now. It well be a feel-good song for everyone."

DETAILS: The Governor's School for the Arts' annual Alumni Benefit Showcase will be at 8 p.m. Saturday at the University Theatre, on the campus of Old Dominion University, on Hampton Boulevard between 46th and 47th streets in Norfolk. Admission is $25. Info: 757-995-1671 or gsarts.org.